


The Things You'll Do for a Friend

by K_Hanna_Korossy



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-30
Updated: 2016-01-30
Packaged: 2018-05-17 05:19:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5855626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K_Hanna_Korossy/pseuds/K_Hanna_Korossy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a mission goes wrong, Daniel has to be action guy, and Jack has to...research.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Things You'll Do for a Friend

First published in _Foundations 5_ (2004)

 

“Another day, another village,” Jack O’Neill sighed.

Daniel Jackson barely glanced at him, caught up in admiring the small houses spread before them in a seemingly concentric-circular pattern. “Well, actually, this is more like a town, Jack—it’s larger than a village, and there are some buildings that are clearly…” O’Neill’s expression, one eyebrow raised in a silent do-I-look-like-I-care?, finally penetrated his brain. “Uh, or it could be a village.”

“Right.” Jack almost looked amused. “So, shall we?” He spread a hand toward the town—village— that lay at the bottom of the small slope they stood on.

“We shall,” Teal’c answered, literal as always, or perhaps just practicing his brand of humor. With Teal’c, Daniel couldn’t always tell. But the dark face betrayed no hint of a smile as the Jaffa turned and led the way toward the village. Sam Carter gave Daniel a quick grin and followed Teal’c.

Daniel glanced over at Jack, seeing the older man frown at Teal’c’s back. “Was that a—”

“Beats me. It’s Teal’c.” Jack shrugged and waved Daniel forward so he could bring up the rear.

Always thinking strategically, even when they were on a planet that was about as peaceful as they came. Deep blue skies, just a touch greener than those of earth, stretched out over scattered clumps of evergreens very similar to earth and grass the color of green olives. A trilling bird song sometimes rang out from the trees, and light breezes stirred Daniel’s hair. The town seemed to have picked up on the feeling of tranquility, with squat houses painted in cool blues and greens laid out in neat patterns. As they got closer, Daniel could see the inhabitants going about their business with unhurried strides on streets paved in stone in symmetric patterns. Looks could sometimes be deceiving—the Nox had taught them that not long ago—but there was a harmony to the place that couldn’t possibly be forced.

They shifted automatically into a different order as they approached, Jack moving forward to take the lead, Teal’c falling behind so he wasn’t the first person the natives would see. It hadn’t taken long to learn the former First Prime of Apophis didn’t always make a good first impression, especially without explanation of which side he was on now. Daniel also moved up to Jack’s side, ready to interpret or guide their team leader with cultural advice as needed. Jack hadn’t known what to make of Daniel’s role in the beginning, but they’d both learned a lot since then, and while the colonel didn’t always agree or even listen to all Daniel had to say, he had at least learned to admit when he needed help and a little historical wisdom. Usually. It wasn’t exactly what Daniel had envisioned when he’d signed on for the job, but he could live with it.

Usually.

Their approach had been noticed, several of the townspeople stopping to watch them with unworried interest, as a young man half-ran in the opposite direction, presumably to fetch the town leaders. At least, Daniel hoped.

“Trusting folk,” Jack muttered to no one in particular, but Daniel nodded.

“There probably hasn’t been any Goa’uld here in a long time, if ever.”

“Well, keep your eyes open. We don’t want any surprises.” Jack’s hand rested on his rifle as it often did, Daniel noticed, and he hid his grimace at the habit. A handgun hung heavily at his side, but he mostly ignored it. That wasn’t the way to greet new cultures, SGC directive notwithstanding.

The young man was returning with an older man at his side. Like the rest of the male townspeople, the elder was dressed in breeches and a shirt and vest with a loose coat over it, the fabric clearly homespun. The women wore long dresses, caps, and shawls or cloaks. The architecture was a little later, but the clothing reminded Daniel of Europe in the late 1300’s or so.

The town elder opened his arms wide and offered them a cheek-splitting smile as he reached the four of them, the younger man stopping respectfully a little behind him. “Welcome, travelers! And traders, I hope? You are very welcome here to our town.”

Town, not village. Daniel cast Jack a smug glance and saw his friend’s lips flatten in annoyance, but Jack wasn’t about to admit he’d been wrong. Instead he gave the elder a falsely cheerful smile in return. “Thanks. Nice place, glad to be here. My name’s Jack, this here’s Daniel,” a finger jabbed into Daniel’s arm, “Carter, and Teal’c.” The other two just got a slight wave of the hand. Lucky him, Daniel thought, but he stepped forward to quickly offer the platitudes Jack didn’t ever seem to think necessary.

“We have come a long distance to visit your town and are honored to be here. We are not traders, but perhaps we might trade between our peoples, if we could learn a little more about you.”

The older man—older than most of the townspeople around them but in reality probably no older than Jack—listened intently to Daniel and nodded when he was finished, smile impossibly widening. “What you say is very wise. We would be happy to show you our ways and learn, in turn, of yours.”

Jack had shifted his balance into something less on-guard and was patiently watching the exchange, which meant he was letting Daniel take this one. “Uh, that would be great. Maybe we could start with your name?”

“Name?” The elder looked puzzled, glancing back at the young man behind him, who shrugged his own ignorance.

“What they call you. My name is Daniel—that’s what my friends call me.” His arm lifted to encompass the other members of SG-1 standing next to him. It wasn’t a word he used often, but it was the truth.

“Ah. I am Burger.”

“ _Burger?_ ” Jack blurted in disbelief.

“Yes.” Burger seemed oblivious to the tone, beaming at Jack.

Daniel resisted with difficulty sending a scathing glance in the colonel’s direction and instead said, “It’s very nice to meet you, Burger. And the young man with you is…?”

Burger turned as if he’d forgotten the young man fidgeting behind him. “He is just Messenger.”

“Messenger?” It was Daniel’s turn to parrot.

“Yes, that is what he does.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean your title—what you do—I meant your name, what your family and friends call you.”

Doubt wiped some of the smile from the elder’s face. “I do not understand ‘name’. I am Burger.”

“Oh. OH.” Light dawned. “So you’re Burger because you’re the town’s leader.”

“Of course.”

Daniel half-turned toward Jack and the rest of the team. “I don’t think they have names, Jack—they are what they do.”

That disbelieving eyebrow went up again. “So he’s a McDonald’s special?”

Daniel resisted the desire to roll his eyes. “No, he’s the Burger, like the German _Beurgermeister_ ,” he explained patiently. “It means ‘mayor.’ It also probably means these people’s ancestors came from Europe, not Africa or the Middle East like most of the other cultures we’ve found.”

“Like the Cimmerians,” Sam spoke up from Jack’s other side.

“Exactly, except these people’s ancestors were probably central Europeans instead of Scandinavians.” Thank God for Sam; she was the one on the team who thought most like Daniel and who sometimes kept him from feeling like he himself was an alien among his own teammates.

Burger had been watching their discussion with polite incomprehension but spoke up now. “I do not know of these you speak of, but you are welcome to learn more about our people. Please feel free to look where you will and see all you wish. Then we will talk of trade. Just find Messenger when you are ready.”

“That sounds very good, thank you,” Daniel bowed to him. Burger bowed back, if stiffly. Perhaps that was an unfamiliar custom to him, and Daniel again caught Jack swallowing a smile, to his chagrin. It wasn’t like Daniel knew _everything_.

Burger withdrew, shooing along a few people who were still watching them, leaving the four of them standing alone at the edge of the road into the village.

“Right. Well, that went easy.” Jack glanced at them—no, past them, at the area all around. “Okay, kids, you know the drill—we split up, take a look around. So far the natives seem friendly, but keep your guard up. For all we know, they think cannibalism is just swell, too.”

“Jack—”

A warning finger went up. “Ah! Daniel! I mean it. Until we’re sure about these people, I want you to stick close to Carter and keep your eyes open. Teal’c, you’re with me.”

This time Daniel did make a face, to which he only got a cheerful hair-rumpling from Jack before the older man turned toward the left, Teal’c trailing him. The Jaffa had already said he hadn’t been on that planet before, but Daniel had an idea it was precaution and not curiosity that had Teal’c looking left and right. Daniel sighed. He was surrounded by paranoiacs.

Well, at least he’d gotten Sam. Sometimes he could almost forget she was military, with her scientific interest and keen observations. As far as babysitters went, she was his favorite.

“Where do you want to start?” Sam asked, glancing around the streets stretching out in several directions from where they stood: to the left and right, following the circular outer edge of the town, and one stretching straight in front of them toward the heart of the city. That was the direction Burger was heading, Messenger still trailing behind him, and that was the way Daniel nodded.

“How about we see what they have at the center? It might tell us more about what’s important to their culture.” A tavern in the center of the bull’s-eye lay-out of the city would hint at quite a different belief system than a church would.

“Sure,” Sam nodded, and they started down the road side-by-side.

People gave them curious glances as they walked, but there was no sign of hostility or malice. Jack was right in that sometimes people weren’t as friendly as they seemed, but Daniel had a feeling about the place. A town and people with nothing to hide, who welcomed them genuinely for their trade possibilities and simply because they were travelers, seemed pretty benign. Okay, so, yeah, there were the friendly people of Pelops who’d had a big, potentially fatal secret, but they hadn’t even known it. And there were no indications of anything abnormal here. Jack was just being…Jack.

Sam, on the other hand, was looking around with obvious fascination and smiling at the children who came to see them up close. Most ran away as soon as there was eye contact, but a few smiled back at her with shy pleasure. Daniel found the corners of his own mouth turning upwards as they went.

“So you think these people are descendents of Germans?” Sam finally spoke up.

“Well, the clothes are European and ‘Burger’ is a good sign. It’s not really my area of expertise but I’ll research it when we get back.”

“Have you ever seen a culture like this where they use titles instead of names?” She leaned closer to him. “I wonder what they call their kids?”

“Probably they just pick a job for them that’ll need somebody by the time they’re older, like an apprentice, and name them that.”

Sam gave him a skeptical look. “And what if they don’t want to do that when they grow up?”

Daniel shrugged. “They change their name?” It was new to him, too, but not so strange. Different cultures didn’t think the same way, let alone cultures raised on a different planet with all its unique characteristics. Sam, for all her open-mindedness, still thought too much like a scientist sometimes, looking for a common basis. General Hammond was finally starting to consider some other archaeologists they might be able to bring into the SGC, a process Daniel had encouraged and aided whenever he could, but for now he was the lone non-military member of the SGC, and sometimes that was a lonely job.

But all that was forgotten now in the excitement of discovery. Even as they walked the stone streets, there was much to see right and left, and Daniel itched to take notes. It would have taken too long, however, and so he just tried to commit it all to memory: the pitch-like stuff that held the bricks on the houses together instead of mortar and peeked out from under the dabbed paint, the odd curtsey the women did in greeting, the slab candles that sat in some of the windows. Even the tiniest details begged the questions of why, why this and not another choice, what materials or tastes or beliefs of the culture did it reflect? There was so much to learn, Daniel was sometimes staggered by it, and always humbled.

“What do you think that is?” Sam’s comment drew his attention to the building that was just coming into view as they reached the hub of the town. It didn’t have a building in the very center, after all, just an open area with hewed stone benches and more of the olive grass, but just to their right was the taller edifice Sam was pointing to, with a squared tower rising from the roof in front. There was no symbol on it, no sign the building was different from any other except for its relative size and steeple-like tower, and the fact that one of the heavy stone doors—apparently these people didn’t use wood much—stood open, inviting.

They stopped at the crux of their road and the plaza, studying the building. “I think it’s a church,” Daniel ventured.

She looked at him. “Wouldn’t a European church have some kind of symbol on it, maybe some stained glass or something?”

“Not necessarily.” Daniel stepped closer to the building, eyes glued to it, drawn to the mystery. “Stained glass was first used in the 600’s, but it wasn’t widespread for centuries, and it definitely wouldn’t have been in the villages. In fact, villagers would usually go to the cathedral in the nearest large town for services, or maybe the chapel in the local castle—they wouldn’t have a church in their village.”

“But if this is all there is…”

“Right, although Burger didn’t look too surprised to see us. It’s more likely any new daughter settlements are far enough away that they have their own church. And it seems to be the largest building in the town, which would indicate its importance. That fits, too. Besides,” Daniel finally threw her a look, enjoying the equal fascination in her eyes, “we don’t know when the Goa’uld took these people. Their cultural evolution has probably gone in totally different directions than our Europe.” Not to mention the effect of no interaction with other cultures. Modern Germans on Earth weren’t running around in capes and breeches. Daniel raised an eyebrow significantly. “Besides, we don’t know what they’re worshipping now.”

“True.” Her hand moved slightly on her firearm as if testing its grip. Right. Scientist but also military. When would he stop feeling disappointed by that?

But the love of the hunt was just as strong in them both, and _he_ could allow himself to give in to it. Daniel smiled. “So…let’s take a look.”

The steps of the church were cut with greater care than he’d seen with the houses, perfectly square worn block, carefully swept of dirt and debris. The walls showed similar attention: no pitch trickling out, the squares of stone symmetrically laid. And while the windows weren’t stained glass, each held a large lit slab candle of pure white.

White seemed to be a symbolic color inside, too. Even before Daniel’s eyes adjusted as he crossed the threshold, he could see the white curtain on both sides near the front of the church, perhaps demarcating holy areas, for the priests only?

Unsurprisingly, most of the furnishings were of stone, too, low stone benches filling the back two-thirds of the room. Not very comfortable looking, Daniel noted as he stepped further inside. At the front was what looked to be a large block of stone at least a meter tall. No altar or ambo, but that wasn’t significant. Divergent evolution could produce all sorts of alternate forms of worship. For all Daniel knew, the townspeople came in and silently meditated every week.

Their boots were loud on the stone floor, every footstep echoing in the large, empty room. Daniel only half heard Sam’s as they followed him inside, then turned to trace the inside of the walls, pausing occasionally to examine something. Daniel’s eyes were only for the stone centerpiece. Before he’d even reached it, he’d realized it wasn’t a block, but rather a table with a slab in front, the center hollow. It stood bare except for a long white cloth that ran its length and a single stone chalice that sat in the center of the cloth and table. Part of the Eucharist, maybe? Had these people kept their devotion to their Christian God through all the centuries of separation from the Church, or had the Goa’uld worked in their own replacement false god? A glance around the front of the sanctuary revealed no icons, no crosses or other symbols of Christian faith, but no strange images, either. The non-descriptness was the first surprising detail of the place.

“I’m going to check around outside. Are you okay in here for a few minutes?”

Sam’s question took a moment to register, and Daniel’s head lifted to give her a disbelieving glance. She was to his right in the front corner of the church, just letting go of the white curtain. Daniel caught a glimpse of stone wall behind it. And of the twinkle in her eye. “I think I can manage,” he said dryly.

She grinned, then turned and strode back to the entrance. A brief shadow as she crossed the threshold, and Daniel returned to his examination.

Okay, no holy texts, no icons, no carvings. At least, that he’d seen. A peek around the edge of the table revealed nothing stored underneath it. Well, that was very…non-denominational. Not what he’d expected at all, but there again was that matter of cultural evolution.

Unless… Frowning, Daniel lifted a corner of the white tablecloth. Aha. Unless they didn’t leave their icons out there for just anyone to see. The series of carvings etched into the stone surface of the table seemed to run the entire length of the obscuring cloth.

And was in Goa’uld.

Daniel’s eyebrows shot up. Well, they’d been looking for signs of Goa’uld seeding. It didn’t get much clearer than that. Leaning closer, he began to read the familiar glyphs, murmuring the alien words under his breath. “The Father of the One…”

A flicker of movement on his left drew his eye. Had the curtain moved? It looked still now. There was an occasional flutter of breeze from the open doorway, and the breath of paranoia from his job. Daniel shook his head at his own ridiculousness and turned back to the etchings. “The Father of the One is the Father of All.” Well, that was…enlightening. The Father of the One—God and Christ? Or some Goa’uld variation on the…

The curtain on his left jerked.

Daniel looked up, startled. He caught only a flash of white in the corner of his eye before the heavy, sweet smell reached his nose.

Even as he opened his mouth to yell for Sam, the cloying scent went straight to his head and settled over his brain like a heavy blanket. Thoughts smothered, sight wavered, his body suddenly unbearably heavy.

A blurry figure in white leaned over him, and then Daniel’s eyes rolled up and he saw no more.

 

Jack O’Neill had to admit, as far as villages went, this was a lot more picturesque than some of the places they’d been. Okay, so the early Puritan look didn’t bode well for their having advanced technology Earth could use, but at least no one was shooting at them, either. That one fact already gave them high marks in Jack’s book.

But he wasn’t exactly a picturesque kind of guy, either. His and Teal’c’s circuit along the edge of the city had discovered nothing but nearly identical stone row houses, lots of smiling citizens, and a growing sense of boredom. There wasn’t even a wall around the village to indicate nasty neighbors. Unless Daniel and Carter found something fascinating and soon, it was time to leave PR…whatever, to SG-9 and their diplomatic mumbo-jumbo. Allies never hurt, even if they probably couldn’t do much besides shoot arrows and throw rocks. The Abydonians had done all right with as much.

Of course, if these guys had some sort of super explosive or something Jack hadn’t seen yet, he wouldn’t complain. Let Daniel find treasures in the weird no-name culture of the place and their languages and customs. The assets Jack valued were of the useful life-saving kind.

“Hey, Teal’c.” The Jaffa’s head swiveled slightly toward him, his eyes still moving over the houses and people around them. Always on his guard, one of the many things Jack loved about the guy. “See anything?”

It was a redundant question; Teal’c would have said something if he had. But Jack was itching, and it was something to do. Maybe Teal’c was as bored as he was.

Did Jaffas get bored?

“I see much, O’Neill.”

That answered his question. Teal’c knew exactly what Jack had been asking, but if he wanted to play, he had to be as tired of the place as Jack, only in that stoic Jaffa way of his. Jack hadn’t been exactly honest with Daniel before—he usually knew full well when Teal’c was teasing, and it was more often than anyone else realized. Something else he and the big guy had in common.

Not that the kids had to know that.

“Oh, yeah? Anything Hammond might wanna know about?”

He got another look for that, one eyebrow raised, both corners of the mouth turning down even more. Classic Teal’c silent retort.

“’S what I thought.” Jack picked up his pace fractionally to match Teal’c’s so they walked side-by-side now instead of in patrol formation. The only danger here was tripping on one of the stones set in the road. “Hey, I’ve got tickets to a game tonight—you wanna come?”

Teal’c didn’t even look at him. “I must kel’no’reem this evening.”

It was Jack’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “You telling me you’d rather sit in your room and meditate than go to a hockey game? I thought we were making progress here, Teal’c.”

Another silent glance, this one more pointed than the last.

Jack chewed on his lip. “Tell you what. We’ll go out for ice cream after.”

Teal’c didn’t miss a beat. “I accept.”

Well, that had been…easy. If expensive—Teal’c could eat more ice cream in one sitting than most people could eat food in three meals. Apparently the kel-noreen thing was the Jaffa equivalent of washing your hair. Jack glanced at Teal’c’s smooth head. Or…whatever.

At least he wasn’t bored anymore. Jack drew himself up, giving Teal’c a grin.

“Just wait until you—”

His radio, strapped to his jacket, suddenly came to life. “Colonel O’Neill?”

Carter, and she sounded impatient. Jack pulled out his radio and thumbed the switch. “Yeah, Captain.”

“Sir, I can’t find Daniel.”

He frowned at the radio, then at Teal’c, who had stopped and turned to look at him this time. “Care to explain that, Carter?”

“We found what we think is a church in the center of town, sir. Daniel was looking around inside while I checked the perimeter, but when I went back inside, he was gone.”

Jack glanced both ways along the road they’d been walking, and silently motioned Teal’c forward, toward the nearest lateral road. The Jaffa’s dark eyes mirrored his concern for that brief second before they started moving, faster than before. Jack flicked on the radio again. “Back door? Sign of struggle?”

“I can’t find either, sir. It’s possible he left by the front door when I was around back, but I didn’t hear a thing, and he’s nowhere in sight.”

“Terrific,” Jack muttered to himself. Why was it always the innocuous-looking planets where they got into trouble? Probably because those were the ones they dropped their guards on. He’d thought assigning Carter to Daniel as a babysitter was enough, but clearly he had to tie the two together to keep them out of trouble. No, cancel that, they probably would have just both disappeared then. He lifted the radio again. “We’re on our way, Captain. Keep looking.”

“Yes, sir.”

They’d already turned off the ring road onto the crossway, heading toward the center of town. Daniel missing—it was positively inspiring how much one trouble one scientist could get into. Daniel Jackson alone was a good argument for civilian personnel not belonging on a military first-contact team.

Yet Jack would have been the first to defend the archaeologist’s presence there. And the minute Jack figured that one out, he’d be a happy man.

It only took a few minutes at their brisk pace to reach the heart of the village. Jack’s eyes slid right and left over the square—or “round,” as the case would be—to take in the layout, possible threats, signs of where Daniel might have disappeared to. Teal’c’s head swiveled ever-so-slightly next to him, the Jaffa also doing the same assessments. Nada. No Daniel, nothing that looked out of the ordinary. The place was basically a park, children playing, adults going about their business, no one giving them a second look. Very innocent except that it had swallowed up part of his team.

Carter appeared from behind the big building in front of them and, seeing Jack and Teal’c, headed their way. The building was probably the church she’d mentioned. There was sort of a steeple on it, if no crosses or anything. Not really surprising if the Goa’uld had relocated the people there. Could that be the discovery that had gotten Daniel in trouble? Jack let the thought run in the back of his mind as he veered to meet his 2IC.

He spoke first as soon as she was in hearing range. “Any change?”

“None, sir.” Frustration weighed heavy in her tone, and a little bit of fear that would have been invisible had he not known her so well. “I’ve looked all around—it’s like he disappeared into thin air, Colonel.”

Which was actually possible with some of the technology they’d seen over the last two years, but the little village around them hardly seemed capable of that kind of expertise. Unless, again, the Goa’uld were involved somehow. They had a way of lurking in the shadows. Jack pressed his lips together. “Show me.”

Carter led the way inside the stone building, Teal’c bringing up the rear. The place had to be a church, with all those stone pews and the altar-thingy in front. But still no symbols, no icons of any kind. The Goa’uld weren’t usually shy about promoting themselves and their worship.

“He was right here when I left him, sir—I think he was examining the cloth here,” she pointed to the draped altar. “I told him I’d take a look around outside, and when I came back he was gone.”

“Any signs of our snake friends ever having been here, Captain?”

She didn’t seem surprised by his question. “No, sir, no symbols, no suspicion from the natives.”

He nodded toward the bare altar. “No crosses, either.” Daniel had said something about German descendants, and Jack remembered enough from Catholic school to know the churches from that place and time should have been Christian.

Carter followed his gaze with a frown. “Daniel and I were wondering about that, too. The place does seem kinda…ecumenical.”

So probably no Goa’uld. That was always the bottom line that interested Jack in any cultural study, and his apprehension eased one bare notch. No snakeheads was always good—there were few worse fates he could imagine for his team than being taken over by a Goa’uld like Skaara had been. But Daniel was still missing, status unknown, and that still had Jack more than a little concerned. If it turned out the scientist had wondered off to look at some pretty rocks, Jack was going to buy him a leash for the next mission.

Another glance over the altar revealed nothing, no buttons, no convenient explanation as to what had happened. Idly, Jack lifted the white cloth and peered underneath, then leaned a little closer as something caught his eye. Carvings? He whipped the fabric off altogether, upsetting the stone cup that sat on it, but he didn’t notice. Yup, carvings. Symbols he couldn’t read but that looked an awful lot like…

“It is Goa’uld.” Teal’c moved in beside him for a closer look. “‘The Father of the One is the Father of All.’”

“Meaning…?” Jack prompted.

“I do not know. It is not a saying I am familiar with.”

“Carter?”

She’d come up on his other side, lightly running a finger over the first glyph. “I didn’t see that before, sir.” She met his eye. “I bet Daniel did, though.”

“And…what, open sesame, the wall opened and he went through?” Teal’c looked at him strangely, and Jack absently added Ali Baba to his mental list of things to explain to the Jaffa. Later.

“At least we know the Goa’uld were here.”

That they did. Jack scowled, already having made that small leap and not liking where it got them. “And they snatched Daniel because he figured it out?”

All three of them glanced around the room. No Jaffa were coming out of the woodwork to grab them for figuring out the secret. Jack nodded at the white curtain stirring slightly in the breeze to his right.

“What’s behind there?”

“I checked both of them, sir—just wall. I thought maybe there was a secret room behind it, but the outer configuration of the church matches the inside.”

“Floor?” Jack gave the stone under him an experimental tap with his boot, but it certainly sounded solid.

“If there is a trapdoor, I couldn’t find it, sir.” She bit her lip. Carter hated not having any answers. Jack gave her an approving nod, trying to let her off that hook at least. Sam Carter was nothing if not thorough, and she wasn’t any more responsible for losing Daniel than the rest of them were. Except maybe for Daniel’s CO, who had trusted the quiet village more than he should have. Who named their kids after jobs, anyway?

Jack grimaced, blowing out a hard sigh and giving the empty sanctuary one last glance. “Okay, Carter, Teal’c, I want you to head for the outside of town, do a recon of the outskirts. The way this place is packed, I don’t think we’re gonna find him in town. I’m gonna go talk to the Cheeseburger, see if I can get anything else out of him. Talk to anybody who looks suspicious, but don’t take any non-urgent action without checking with me first.”

“Yes, sir.”

Teal’c inclined his head.

“Oh, and if you find Daniel, tie him down, sit on him, I don’t care, just keep him there so I can chew his head off.”

The barest of hints of grins from his team, but it had gotten the desired result: encouragement and easing their worry.

Now if only he could ease his own.

He followed Teal’c and Carter out of the church, watching for a moment until they turned up one of the spoke-roads, then glancing around. And not the least surprised to see Messenger hovering nearby, watching them with barely concealed curiosity. Jack narrowed his eyes at the kid and motioned him close, striding to meet him.

Messenger came, his body language a mix of pride and hesitation. Oddly, he reminded Jack of Skaara, and he pressed his lips together, banishing the image. Why did all kids remind him either of Skaara or Charlie?

“I wanna talk to the head guy again, uh, Burger,” Jack barked when the kid was close enough. He could see the flinch and immediately regretted it. There was no reason to think the boy had anything to do with Daniel going missing. Jack softened his tone and expression a fraction. “Please.”

A bob of the gold-haired head and Messenger dashed off. He’d certainly been well-named; Jack had to give him that much.

It took less time than Jack in his impatience had expected, as the kid reappeared the way he’d come, almost pulling along Burger behind him. In other circumstances, Jack would have smiled at the kid’s eagerness, but this time it reminded him of Daniel, and that immediately stole any amusement away.

“You are ready to discuss trade?” Burger said pleasantly as they met in the center of the town square.

“Actually, we have a problem I was hoping you could help us with. Daniel’s disappeared.”

Burger blinked, his smile vanishing. If he was an actor, he was an awful good one, Jack conceded, because the man looked completely taken aback. “Disappeared? Where?”

Jack gave him a bland smile. “Now if we knew that, he wouldn’t be gone, would he? He was in your church over there, and next thing we know, _poof!_ , he’s gone.”

“Poof?”

Okay, so maybe the _poof!_ was too much—the mayor looked utterly baffled. Jack was starting to get the sinking feeling he had absolutely no idea what was going and wouldn’t be any help at all. Jack shifted his stance to one a little less wary. “Do you have any enemies around here, someone who might have snatched him?”

“No, none at all. Our nearest neighbors are across the mighty River, which is impossible to cross this season, and they are also peaceful people. There is no one.”

“Anyone ever come from the direction we came from?”

A mute shake of the head. But then, Goa’uld would probably have fallen under the heading of “enemies.”

“Any traps, then? Secret passages? Trap doors?”

“Inside the church? Why?”

Okay, so that hadn’t sounded reasonable to Jack, either, but neither did someone on his team disappearing. “How ‘bout the priests, the guys who work in the church. Could I talk to them?”

“If they were not inside, they are away, purifying themselves. It is their way to go out to the bank of the River and cleanse themselves for worship.”

It was like talking to a sheep. Jack huffed, losing the last remnants of his patience. “Anyone else then, cops, architects, the town psychic, _somebody_?”

Burger’s face had furrowed as he talked, clearly not knowing what Jack was talking about again, but it cleared at the end. “There is one place you might find what you seek.”

He had to resist the urge to clap the portly man on the back. “Great. Wonderful. Let’s go.”

Burger eagerly turned and led the way, Jack only a step behind and Messenger lingering uncertainly at the rear. Curiosity or his job, Jack didn’t know or particularly care. As long as these guys led him to Daniel, nothing else mattered.

They made a series of turns, until Jack estimated they were somewhere in the middle of the rings in the northern part of the city. The house Burger walked up to looked just like its neighbors, a watery shade of blue-green, one of the middle of the row on that block. But his guide didn’t hesitate, opening the door without knocking, then standing to one side in the doorway in tacit invitation for Jack to enter first.

It was a library, or at least at looked like one from the book-filled shelves that lined all four walls. A table at the center was bare, ready for study. Daniel’s kind of place, actually, except there was no one there.

Jack turned an expectant eye on the mayor. “Let me guess, run by a guy named Librarian?” he asked.

The round face clouded again. “I do not understand this, but here is where the past knowledge of our people resides. Perhaps you would find your answers here.”

Jack blinked. Him? The Happy Meal expected him to find Daniel by going through all those books himself? That was Daniel’s job, not Jack’s.

Then again, who was going to do it? Carter and Teal’c were at the other end of town, doing the recon he’d sent them on, and Burger didn’t look like he could read, let alone recognize an important discovery if it hit him on the head. The room looked well-maintained, but from what he’d seen, Jack was guessing it wasn’t used often. Except maybe by the priests.

Which would make it even likelier he’d find some answer to Daniel’s whereabouts there. Jack frowned at the books, craning his neck, so he could read the title of one near the door. Or rather, pronounce it. Just barely.

It was in Latin, or something close to it.

Sweet.

Forget the leash; he was going to chain Daniel to Teal’c on their next mission.

 

Falling asleep—or getting knocked out, whatever—in one place and waking up in another was a disorienting sensation Daniel Jackson did not like but was very experienced with. He didn’t know how small children took it with equanimity, although at least kids usually felt safe wherever they woke up. There were no such guarantees in this…cave?…Daniel found his eyes opening to.

At least there wasn’t a throbbing headache this time, no blood streaming into his face or a knot on the back of his head. That was something, small comfort as it was. Only a lingering dizziness remained, a feeling of cotton stuffing his head. Also not fun, and Daniel shook his head trying to relieve some of it, which succeeded only in making the room—cave—spin.

It did indeed look like a cave, dirt walls enclosing an area about the size of his quarters on base but at least twice as high. If he craned, he could just make out some roots hanging from the dirt ceiling. There was a small doorway in the far corner, a dim glow from beyond outlining its uneven edge, and no furnishings except for what looked like a stone chamber pot in the near corner.

Daniel slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, stifling a groan as he did. No bump on the head, but he felt a few bruises spreading across his body. Apparently whoever it was who’d brought him there hadn’t bothered to be too gentle. That didn’t bode well. The sooner he could get out of there and back to the others, probably the better.

He staggered to his feet, one hand on the earthen wall for support. It flaked a little underneath his palm but otherwise seemed unusually solid, as if it had been hewn a long time ago. “That’s interesting,” Daniel muttered, brushing the hand against his pants. It didn’t help clean either his palm or his clothes, but Daniel’s attention was already re-focused on the lighted doorway. His steps firming with each stride, he lurched his way across the cavern toward the light.

And quickly found out why the light was weak. Two big, white-clad figures blocked most of it as they stood with their backs to him side-by-side in front of his doorway.

Daniel blinked. Apparently he’d been optimistic about the exit. “Um, excuse me,” he ventured, coughing to clear his throat of the dust that had settled in it.

One large back turned to face him, revealing a stern face above it, hooded and frowning. “What is it you require?”

The question might have been polite but the tone gave every indication that Daniel was disturbing him. Which suited Daniel just fine. He leaned surreptitiously on the nearby wall with one hand. “Uh, an explanation would be good, for starters. Like, where am I, and why am I here?”

“You are in the Caves. You read the ancient forbidden words, and so you were taken through the wall and brought here where you must stay until the return of our God—He will decide what to do with you.”

Well, that actually explained a lot. Caves and God—the people on that planet didn’t seem to have any proper names at all, and maybe that was because their God didn’t, either. They’d probably been left alone there on the planet so long, they’d lost the details. The vague “the Father of the One is the Father of All” and the ceremonial white were perhaps the only merged remains of both their original Christian and the introduced Goa’uld faiths. Those, and their little cave ritual, Daniel couldn’t help but add darkly. The priest had said he’d been taken through the wall—a trap door, probably, maybe hidden by those white curtains, so Sam probably hadn’t seen him go. And ancient words? Apparently yet another culture where writing and reading could get you in trouble. Or maybe, writing and reading in Goa’uld. Not that any of this was the least bit useful, except for Jack at least having his definitive proof of Goa’uld presence on the planet. Which meant Daniel had limited time in which to work.

He shifted his weight slightly, changing his tone to one of patience and appeasing. “Actually, what you call the ‘ancient words’ is a language I know from other…places we’ve been. It’s the language of a race called the Goa’uld—it’s not sacred, they just want people to think so so that—”

“You lie.” The cloaked man—priest?—turned his back again.

There wasn’t a shred of doubt in the man’s voice, just a statement of fact. Daniel stared at him speechlessly for a moment, then shook his head. The cotton had turned to cobwebs but he still felt muddled, slow. “I’m _not_ lying. Look…the Goa’uld, they set themselves up like the gods of a culture because…they _need_ to be worshipped. We’ve seen it over and over again in other cultures. They’re false gods.”

The broad backs didn’t even twitch.

Daniel brushed a hand through his hair and breathed out. Okay, time for a different approach. “Fine, just…when is this god of yours supposed to arrive?”

For a long moment, he thought they’d continue ignoring him, then the same guy half-turned to say over his shoulder. “We do not know.”

“Okay, well, when was he last here?”

The priest’s chin lifted. “Many generations ago.” He turned back, facing away from Daniel again.

Daniel’s jaw dropped. Many generations? The Goa’uld had either forgotten or abandoned the planet. _The Father of the One is the Father of All_. There weren’t many fatherly fictures in the Goa’uld-adopted deities, except maybe Ra, in which case they’d be in for a long wait. But no, more likely it was a Christian culture as he’d guessed, one that probably had been forgotten and left to develop on its own. And since it was doubtful The God would be paying a visit any day soon, that still meant Daniel could be there for a very long time. Sure, Jack and Sam and Teal’c would be looking for him, but the caves could be miles from the city, completely hidden for all Daniel knew. They might never find him.

The cobwebs seemed to have been blown free by the stiff wind of that revelation, and Daniel’s mind raced once more. “Listen, you don’t have to do this. I meant no disrespect—if you wish, I can leave and not return.”

Nary a twitch of interest at his offer.

“Or, listen, better yet, I can teach you about those ancient words—knowledge is power, especially against the Goa’uld. You have no idea what it is you’re worshipping. They are _not_ gods, they’re parasites who—”

The same priest turned again, brow drawn together. “You will cease talking now.”

Daniel grimaced. “Or…I can cease talking now.” And he was back to looking at two silent, massive backs.

Great. Wonderful. So much for knowledge being power—this time it’d landed him in an underground prison with no release date in sight. And any sort of negotiation or explanation seemed out of the question, too. Terrific. What did that leave him, shooting his way out? His hand actually reached for his sidearm before he realized it, and Daniel winced. That was what a year with the military had gotten him, instinctive resorting to weapons instead of more diplomatic or creative solutions to problems. Besides which, his gun was gone. If the priests didn’t kill him, Jack would.

But it wasn’t like diplomacy was getting him very far this time. The priest had made it pretty clear he was done listening to Daniel. Which left…what, digging his way out? Another brush of the wall and floor was enough to convince him of the foolishness of that idea. The dirt was hard-packed by years of use; digging would be the slow way out, as in years. Rescue? That wasn’t a bad plan besides the fact that no one would have a clue where to look for him, not to mention that it required him to sit around playing the passive victim. No thanks. Sneaking out? Past the two giants who pretty much blocked off the entrance? Yeah, maybe if he were invisible.

Which left…force. The patented Jack O’Neill Method for dealing with unpleasant situations: if you couldn’t shoot, you fought your way out. The method Daniel had always ridiculed. Okay, so maybe it had its place, but then, Jack and Sam and Teal’c were trained warriors, experienced in combat. He was…well, an archaeologist. Jack had taught him a few moves, grudgingly, but against two huge, possibly armed unfriendlies? And who-knew-how-many other priests besides them?

“Unfriendlies?” Daniel muttered to himself. “You’re even starting to sound like Jack.” And wasn’t that encouraging. But…some of the lessons had stuck. And his two guards had conveniently turned their backs to him, clearly not experienced in the whole kidnapping business nor expecting resistance. Not to mention the alternative was home, sweet cave. Maybe he could do this…

Daniel made a face. Talk about a no-win situation. Even if he made it out of there safely, there was no way he’d live this one down with the others. Especially Jack.

Life wasn’t fair.

Resigned, Daniel sank back to the earthen floor and began to, er, plot.

 

Jack O’Neill had a headache.

He shoved aside the book he’d been reading—well, flipping through—with a muttered curse, and dropped another equally thick and dusty volume into its place. _Deus Ex Urbis_ , the cover read in coppery gilt letters. _God of the City_ …or was it _City of the God_? “Swell,” Jack sighed, and flipped it open.

There was a reason there was an archaeologist on their otherwise military SGC team. It was so he could comb through piles of books like this so his CO didn’t have to, let alone through books in ancient languages. It was a real shame and oversight that whatever it was in the gate that made them understand the natives didn’t also affect written language.

Jack had been right in that the library was in Latin, or something similar enough that he couldn’t have told the difference. Daniel would probably have already filled a notebook with all the divergences and given Jack a ten-minute long discourse—again—on linguistic evolution. He never thought Jack listened, not really, and while sometimes he was right, Jack did pay attention more than Daniel realized. A good CO always did; you never knew when some of that information would turn out to be crucial for the mission…or in saving your team.

Still, he didn’t try to correct Daniel’s assumption. It was partly the game they played, partly more, the roles they had taken over. Jack was the uneducated warrior, thinking in black and white military terms, ready to do what was needed to get the job done, while Daniel was the scholar, the one who sought alternatives to force and who could afford to think in abstracts and ideals. It made it easier when Jack had to be the bad guy and make the unpopular decision. Forget that he had a postgraduate degree and had even done some teaching, or that he sometimes couldn’t sleep at night because of those decisions. Carter and Teal’c already knew some of that, but let Daniel keep his outraged innocence for as long as he could. It was already fading and would be gone soon enough.

Besides, sometimes Jack _didn’t_ get what the heck Daniel was going on about. He tried his best, but Carter and Daniel’s areas of expertise were way outside his, which was why SG-1 was such a good team. They complemented each other, another thing Daniel didn’t always see, but a smart leader surrounded himself with people who knew what he didn’t.

Like Latin. Jack sighed, idly flipping another heavy parchment page. Yeah, he knew a few phrases by heart and, looking at the Latin script in front of him, some of the words and forms were familiar from vaguely remembered high school classes, but he was far from a linguist. That was supposed to be Daniel’s department.

His radio crackled to life on the table next to him.

“Colonel, this is Carter.”

Jack grabbed it with relief. “Carter, any luck?”

“No, sir. We’ve walked the western perimeter of the city, the side facing the ‘gate, but there’s no sign of Daniel or anything unusual, sir.”

He grimaced tightly at the radio. “Okay, move on to the south, Carter, same search pattern. And keep Teal’c with you—I don’t want to lose another one of you.”

“Right, sir. Uh, how are you coming along?”

He glared at the pile of books on the table. “Swimmingly, Captain.”

“Sir, I could take a stab at the translation work if you wanted a break. My Latin’s a little rusty, too, but—”

But she was a scientist, and that was their second language. Still… “No, thanks, Carter, I’m gonna stay with it a little longer. If you and Teal’c don’t find anything south, we’ll regroup then.”

“Yes, sir. Carter out.”

It was awfully tempting: leave the library to Carter, let her sort through the dust and gibberish. She was a lot more keen on the research stuff than he was. But besides the precious time that would be lost while she made her way to the library and Jack set off with Teal’c, there was something else, some sense that he was close, that the answer was in front of him if only he could find it.

Or maybe he just wanted to find Daniel that badly. Because for all the guy’s usefulness and being a member of Jack’s team, it was Daniel his friend Jack missed the most. Maybe Daniel talked down to him sometimes—okay, a lot—and was almost constantly exasperated with him, but he also, well, cared about Jack and was loyal to him to an almost embarrassing extent. And darned if it hadn’t somehow become mutual over the last year or so. So while Jack never would have admitted it to Sam and Teal’c, or even Daniel for that matter, this was kinda personal.

And very frustrating.

Jack blew out a hard breath, then traced a line with his finger before his eyes were tempted to cross. There was that word again: _Sacerdos_ , always capitalized. He’d already seen it in two of the other books, but then Jack had been trying to pick volumes that appeared to be about the church or religion, so it was logical that they’d contain some of the same language. _Sacerdos_. Sounded like “sacred.” That made sense, but it looked like it was being used as a noun, not an adjective, which didn’t. Unless he’d totally mixed up his Latin grammar, not an impossibility. Still, a noun… a sacred object? Or maybe a priest? It did seem to be talking about a person…

Burger had said they had priests, they just were away right now on some kind of retreat. Awfully coincidental timing. What if one of them had stayed behind and hadn’t liked the way Daniel was poking around in their church? It wouldn’t be the first time Daniel’s curiosity had gotten him into trouble.

Okay, so “priest.” That was good. And the priests did what? Looked like some kind of rituals; he recognized the words for water and blood. Blood rituals—swell. Hopefully Daniel hadn’t stumbled into one of those. Then something about clothes, or maybe cloth. He skipped the fashion tips and turned the page.

_Deus_ —that one was easy. They still weren’t clear who the god was of that planet, but judging by Burger and Messenger, they didn’t have a name for him besides “God.” There sure didn’t seem to be one in the books, at least as far as Jack could tell. _When the god arrives…_ That sounded promising, but also like a prophecy, not something concrete. The people sure hadn’t acted like the Goa’uld were regular visitors, afraid and hiding from visitors.

Jack turned another page. More priests, gods, yadda, yadda… _speluncae_. Hadn’t he seen that word somewhere else, too, _speluncae_? Sounded like “spelunkers”…and there was probably a reason for that. Caves, maybe? Could it be talking about the priests going to some kind of caves? For some of their rituals, perhaps, or on their retreat? It was like getting only every tenth word of a message, Jack clenched his teeth in frustration, running a hand through his hair. He knew the topic but not the details.

Still, priests and rituals. There was a section on language—he knew some of that from Daniel’s lectures. Rituals concerning language, and the caves. If anyone would get caught up in a ritual having to do with language, it would be Daniel. He’d nearly gotten them killed on Abydos simply because he wrote and read what had been forbidden. Maybe he’d been taken to the caves as some kind of punishment, or a ritual.

Or it could mean any one of a dozen other things, and Jack would be none the wiser.

Well, only one way to find out. Pushing himself to his feet, Jack opened the door and leaned out.

Just as he thought, Messenger had been sitting beside the door, his back to the library wall, idly watching the passersby. He scrambled to his feet as the door opened, standing once again at nervous ready.

“Relax, kid,” Jack couldn’t help but say, giving him a small smile. Skaara had had that same nervous energy, he’d just smiled a lot to hide it. “I just have a question.”

“I will get Burger.” He turned to run off.

Jack stepped out into the street. “No, wait. Maybe you can help me with this.”

The kid turned back, surprise and disbelief in his face. And maybe a touch of curiosity. “I?”

Jack nodded at him. “I bet you know a lot about what goes on around town, huh?”

The kid licked his lips and jerked his head up and down, but his eyes were fixed on Jack with almost devotion. Didn’t anyone ever talk _to_ him instead of just through him?

Jack dropped a casual hand onto his shoulder, feeling Messenger straighten under it. “You ever hear about any caves around here? Maybe someplace the priests go to do their…stuff?”

Messenger’s eyes narrowed slightly, but in thought, not wariness. “There are the holy Caves where High Priest and other Priests go to purify themselves,” he offered.

It was hard to keep himself from jumping on that, but Jack kept his tone mildly encouraging. “That’s it—the caves. You know where they are?”

The boy’s face scrunched up. “It is forbidden for any but the Priests to go there.”

“Right. Of course. Forbidden.” Jack leaned closer, confiding. “We don’t want to go in, we just want to, you know, see where they are. Just curious.”

“Oh. Well, I have never been there but I believe they are not hard to find. They are above the city, where the sun rises.”

East, or maybe to the townspeople, north. Jack gave the kid a warm smile and a clap on the shoulder. “Thanks, Ger, you’ve been a big help. I’ll be sure to tell the Burger when I see him.”

The smile he got back was radiant. “Thank you, sir. Shall I take you to the edge of the city where you must go?”

“I think I’ve got it from here, thanks. Tell Burger we’ll be back to talk to him soon about trade, huh?”

“Of course.” And with a flash of a grin, the kid was off. He certainly seemed born to his name.

Jack’s amusement died quickly. Back to business. Reaching inside the library door to grab his rifle and his pack, Jack set off with swift steps toward the east, flicking the radio on as he went.

“Carter, Teal’c. I think I know where Daniel is.”

 

His ancestors must have been bored out of their wits.

Yeah, okay, so they had to fight for their survival and constantly hunt for food, sure, but what did they get to do when they settled into their caves at night? Stare at four brown walls, or maybe the fire. The closest thing they had to intellectual or creative pursuits were some crude cave drawings.

Which Daniel didn’t even have the materials for. Nor a fire to stare into. Just four brown walls in dim light, and the backs of two white-robed priests.

So far they hadn’t budged from their posts in the door except, Daniel gathered, to occasionally relieve themselves, at which the remaining priest moved over to cover the whole door. At least that boded well for there not being a whole bunch of priests congregating in the room beyond. Daniel figured sooner or later they would be replaced by another pair while the first ones slept and ate, but that hadn’t happened yet. If they planned to keep him as long as they’d said, though, it was bound to happen before too long.

In the meantime, he was stuck in near-dark with nothing to do but think about getting out of there. Or rather, how Jack would get out of there.

It probably made sense to wait until the changing of the guard, Daniel decided first. Yes, that meant challenging fresh guys instead of the ones who’d been wearing themselves out on guard duty all…afternoon? Night? But, he couldn’t help but think, it would also give him one last try to get out of this diplomatically, to ply his arguments on a fresh pair of ears. And if that didn’t work, there was less danger of reinforcements unexpectedly arriving while Daniel was in the midst of knocking out their compatriots.

As to that part, Daniel was a little less clear on how it would work exactly. The priests offered a great opportunity, with their backs to him— _had_ to be novices at the whole kidnapping thing—but they were both about the size of Teal’c and presumably armed, while he had…his clothes, period. Every last bit of equipment down to his bottle of antihistamine pills was gone. Not exactly a lot of options for weapons besides his bare hands. Daniel had made a circuit of the cave, looking for a loose rock he could pry out and use as a sap, but the walls were packed hard and mostly dirt, only pebbles wedged into the surface. Well, his hands weren’t exactly lethal weapons, so that meant he had exactly…

Boots! Of course, they’d left him his boots as part of his attire. Another mistake on their parts. Of course, if Jack would have been there he could have constructed some neat bolo or trip wire or something from the shoelaces alone and gotten them out. But boots—that wasn’t bad. Daniel would get out of there alive yet, he thought smugly.

He’d just have to hit two people with their backs to him, two men who hadn’t hurt him, hard enough to knock them unconscious. Him, the guy who’d once taken part in a rally to save baby sea turtles.

Daniel sighed. Well, if he hadn’t realized when he’d first signed on for the job what it would entail, he’d certainly learned since then. Going on exploratory missions with little known ahead of time sometimes led to situations like, well, this, where he had to defend himself or his teammates, even with brute force. In even less threatening situations than this, oftentimes. But it was the only way to keep looking for Sha’re, and in the short-term, it was also the only way to keep his teammates safe, which was just as important. As much as he balked at the reminders from Jack, their safety meant a lot more to him, even more than his own. And right now they could be putting themselves into all kind of peril and worry looking for him.

Okay, he wouldn’t hit the guards hard, just enough to knock them out for a little while.

Maybe he dozed; tufts of the cotton still lingered in the corners of his head. The next thing Daniel knew, he came to sharp awareness of voices out in the cavern beyond. His head was clear now, and the shadows deeper. And moving, as the pair of priests at his door changed places with one other, also with his back to the door. Only one guard? Daniel nearly smiled, until the second one slid into Daniel’s cell past his friend. Without a word or glance at Daniel, the priest plunked down a bowl and cup on the floor and then headed back toward the door, where he took up his post as the second guard.

This was his chance to try. “Listen, you don’t have to do this—I can not leave and come back. I’m sure your god would—”

As if Daniel wasn’t even there, the priest reached the door and joined his companion in guard duty.

Two fresh guards. And they’d given him food. They certainly weren’t making this any easier for him.

But he’d offered them one more chance and they didn’t seemed any more open to reason than the first pair had. There was nothing else left to wait for.

Daniel sighed silently and scrambled to his feet, creeping past the food on his way to the door and trying not to smell the delicious if unfamiliar warm smell that rose from the stone bowl. The cup, also carved stone, seemed to hold water, but he couldn’t take a chance on either no matter how hungry and thirsty he was. If they were trying to drug him again, it could be another whole day before he’d have another chance to make his move.

The priests stood statue-like, their arms crossed like a bad illustration from Ali Baba. All that was missing were tasseled turbans and scimitars in their fists. Daniel hoped.

They didn’t seem to care what he did, but he still moved as silently as possible, leaning one shoulder against the cave wall as he untied and pulled off his right boot. It did have heft to it, solid US Air Force make that it was. The sole had to be an inch thick and the toe was solid as a rock. It would have to be.

Daniel took careful two-handed aim, and swung the boot like a hitter trying for a home-run.

The crack against the skull of the leftmost guard was both satisfying and horrifying. Daniel couldn’t help but stare at him, wide-eyed, for a moment as the big guy dropped without barely a grunt. There was no way to tell if he was dead or merely unconscious, but he was out of the game.

Which left only guard number two, the one who’d fed him, who was already turning, surprise giving way to outrage.

Daniel recovered himself and re-aimed, trying for un uppercut blow this time.

One of the guard’s meaty arms shot and deflected it as easily as Daniel would have a fly.

He gulped. Okay, this was when Jack usually got the second guy from behind, but there was no Jack, only the advancing giant. Jack the Giant-Killer—the sudden connection nearly made Daniel giddy. Or maybe that was the flood of adrenaline.

The same large arm was descending toward his face, and Daniel acted on instinct, swinging up his own to block and feeling the jar throughout his whole body as the two limbs connected. Undeterred, the priest swept his free arm in from the other side, this time coming in low. Daniel didn’t see it until the blow connected with his ribs.

It felt like a battering ram had hit him. The force of the assault drove him headfirst into the edge of the doorway hard enough that he saw spots. Big, bright ones.

A smirk crept across the priests face, Daniel could see even through askew glasses—or possibly blurry vision. He stepped in for the kill, both arms rising in a double blow Daniel doubted an ox could survive.

Leaving, momentarily, some vulnerable parts of his anatomy exposed.

Daniel had almost forgotten his boot, still clutched in his hand, but now he gritted his teeth and drove it upward in a solid pseudo-kick, right into the priest’s most exposed and vulnerable part.

This time he felt no revulsion except for a certain twinge of empathic pity as the priest’s face went as white as his robes and, with a gurgle, he dropped next to his friend in a fetal curl.

Daniel dropped the boot and dizzily propped himself against the cave wall. He should probably check the first priest to make sure he was alive, or put his boot on, or at least not feel so disgustingly…exultant over his victory. He’d just put two men out of circulation, one, Daniel winced, very severely, and their only crime had been to follow their beliefs and traditions. It hadn’t even been to save his own life. Was it worth it?

No, as long as he didn’t mind living in a cave for the rest of his life. Not to mention turning the SGC on its end while everyone looked for him. Jack would’ve been…

Daniel sighed. Jack _would_ be very annoyed with him for having disappeared again, and then with that worried look would start clucking at the warm liquid Daniel strongly suspected was blood that was dripping into his eyes, and Daniel would give him a helpless shrug and everything would be okay again. Life would go on. The life he would fight to keep.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered to the two figures sprawled at his feet, and gingerly made his way around them, away from the doorway to his cell and toward what Daniel hoped was the entrance.

The cavern beyond his looked very similar except that it came with lighting, slab candles on earthen shelves. A pile on the floor next to his foot proved to be his discarded things, and Daniel eased himself down far enough to snag his sidearm and his grandfather’s pocket watch. The rest was both replaceable and wouldn’t hurt the culture to leave behind.

A doorway that wasn’t guarded stood in the far wall and seemed to be letting in some light that couldn’t compete with the candlelight but also didn’t sway and bob like the artificial illumination did. Leaning one-handed against the cave walls for balance, Daniel staggered through the second doorway.

The third cave was just an anteroom leading to the outside, as he’d hoped. Daniel paused for a moment to stare at the hint of darkening blue sky and to breathe gratefully the fresh air that came in through the doorway on the right, even half-obscured as it was by bushes. The earthen smell of the caverns had crawled into his head without his even realizing it, and the outside air reminded Daniel of flowers and trees and even the olive-colored grass. Life.

Gait firming with every step, Daniel brushed by the bush and went outside.

Freedom. That was another thing worth fighting for.

Without a wall to lean against, he swayed a little, but the cooling air of twilight refreshed and invigorated. Finding his feet again, and the worn path he could barely make out beneath them, Daniel wrapped an arm around his aching side and started moving.

And, as he rounded the corner of the mountain with his eyes on his feet, nearly ran headlong into Jack.

 

With his worried rush, it hadn’t taken Jack long to meet up with Carter and Teal’c at the southeast corner of the city. “This way,” was all Jack had said, with a curt point of the chin toward the east. Carter immediately fell in at his side, Teal’c just behind them.

“You said ‘caves,’ sir?” Carter prompted after a minute.

He’d been noticing her side glances and was just waiting for her to ask. “Priests use them for some of their rituals. Messenger said they were east of the city. Or, as he put it, ‘above the city where the sun rises’.”

“And you think they’re keeping Daniel there?”

“Makes sense. Daniel gets snatched in a church, the priests are all gone. Kinda suspicious to me, don’t you think, Captain?”

“Yes, sir.” A pause, almost hesitant. “And you got all this from the Latin manuscripts, sir?”

Jack gave her a smug glance. “Didn’t know I had it in me, didja, Carter?”

“No, sir. I mean, of course, sir.”

His withering glare needed work; he could swear she was hiding a smile.

Sixteen seconds—he counted them. “Did it say why they might’ve taken Daniel?”

“No.”

“Or maybe what they’re doing with—”

“Carter.” He slowed for just a moment to look at her. “It was in _Latin_.”

“Right. Sorry, sir.”

This time Teal’c was looking suspiciously amused. Jack shook his head. He got no respect from his team. He’d actually gotten a lead on where one of his men had been taken from a roomful of books in another language, and they were still making fun of him.

But it had taken their minds off worrying about Daniel for a few minutes. And, really, did he want them thinking he could wade into alien libraries and solve any problem at the drop of a hat? Soon they’d be offering him Daniel’s job and actually _expecting_ him to understand that stuff. They didn’t have to know their old CO wasn’t as lost as he often seemed to be. Kept the kids on their toes.

Ahead of them, army-green meadows gave way to a copse of trees and bushes that buttressed piles of boulders and the beginnings of steadily rising rocky terrain. Promising, if you were looking for caves.

Jack immediately slowed their pace, a finger to his mouth to indicate stealth. Carter’s hands slipped back around her MP-5, and Teal’c moved forward to flank him on the other side, his footsteps as smooth and silent as a cat now. For a big guy, he put most of the special ops men Jack had known to shame.

The trees were soon behind them, only fat, thick bushes obstructing their view now. They circled a big one, revealing the edge of a short ridge behind it. And some small noises of movement just beyond that. Jack’s eyes flicked to both sides but his team was already alert and ready, moving with him like one unit. This was how it was supposed to be, and how it usually was when they didn’t have…

Daniel stepped from behind the rocks, nearly colliding with Jack in his distraction.

Or rather, he was staggering, slightly bent over with an arm pressed against his side and half his face covered in blood. Jack noted all that in the disbelieving second it took to grab the archaeologist before he keeled over.

That, and the fact he was alive.

“Daniel!” came Carter’s startled gasp from Jack’s side, but Jack was already looking past him, heart pounding with several kinds of fear, the most urgent of which unfortunately was where the attackers were. His hand still an iron grip on Daniel’s free arm, he leveled a not-unkind stare into the civilian’s dazed eyes.

“Where are they, Daniel?” Jack tried to make the question coaxing, but his voice was sharp with his concern. And it wasn’t because of the unfriendly natives.

“They? Oh, the priests. I left them in the cave. I think they’ll be out for a while.” And he grimaced in the way only Daniel, standing their hunched and bloodied, could at the thought of violence.

Jack’s eyebrows lifted, along with, irrationally, a good chunk of his worry. They? As in, more than one priest? And Daniel had not only won but gotten away in one piece? Maybe Jack would have to rethink some of his comments on the civilian’s quarterly evaluation. For the moment, he glanced at Teal’c and motioned beyond them with a jerk of the head. “Check it out.”

The Jaffa gave a single nod and retraced Daniel’s steps out of sight beyond the rocks.

Daniel swayed again, and Jack’s attention snapped back to him. He let go of his weapon to hold on to his errant archaeologist with both hands, but careful now in all kinds of ways he thought he’d forgotten with Charlie’s death. “Let’s get you sitting down, huh?” he said with gruff gentleness. “Carter?”

She helped him ease Daniel onto a nearby low boulder, then swung her pack down to retrieve the first aid kit even as Daniel gave them a wave. “I’m feeling okay, actually, just a little sore.”

“A little?” Jack raised an eyebrow, attention divided between Daniel’s face and Carter’s nursing. Trying not to look as utterly relieved as he felt at the sight of Daniel’s rueful smile.

“Well, my ribs feel like Teal’c’s been stepping on them and it looks like you and Sam are hula dancing or something…interesting effect, by the way. But I think that’s just—ow!—blood loss.”

“Hold still, Daniel!”

“I would if you weren’t—ouch,ouch—pushing so hard—ow! Right there.”

“That’s where it’s bleeding.” Carter’s teeth were clenched. So were Daniel’s.

Jack didn’t even try to hide the smile. Daniel couldn’t be too bad if the kids were already arguing. He kept a hand on Daniel’s shoulder just to keep him steady and upright, and squeezed it lightly. “So…you knocked the priests out?”

“Well, one. The other…well, I just hope priests are celibate in this culture.”

Jack’s eyes widened, a disbelieving snort escaping him before he caught himself. “You mean you…?”

A wince was answer enough.

The grin nearly split his face. “Oh, Danny boy—remind me not to get on your bad side!”

“Too late,” he barely heard Daniel mutter behind Carter’s fussing hands.

“And you wanna tell me how they got you up in those caves in the first place?”

It was actually almost exactly how he’d imagined it: Daniel rendered unconscious, carried out through a secret entrance, waking up in the cave. The emphasized point of how Daniel had tried every avenue possible before resorting to force, and the glossing over of how exactly that had been carried out. It didn’t distract Jack from the fact of a well-planned and executed escape. And the pink that had crept into Daniel’s cheeks from the admission was just the icing on the cake.

“So you knocked ‘em out, huh? Brute force, Daniel?” Jack tsked with a cheerful smile.

“How did you know to look here?” Daniel answered instead, a bald attempt to change the subject.

And suddenly Jack was uncomfortable. “Uh, the priests use the caves for some of their parties. Figured it was worth a look.”

“Oh, yeah?” Daniel’s interest was newly engaged despite the walking-wounded look Carter’s bandage gave him. Only Daniel, Jack reflected fondly.

“The colonel found it in a book. A Latin book,” Carter spoke up from where she was examining Daniel’s ribs.

Daniel blinked. “A book? Jack?” As if the two were mutually exclusive.

“Yes, a book,” Jack blustered. “Carter, you almost done?”

“Nearly, sir,” she said too pleasantly. He scowled at her, trying not to look at Daniel at all.

“A Latin book? Jack—”

Teal’c, very thankfully, chose this time to reappear. A glance at Daniel to make sure he was in one piece, and he directed his report to Jack. “There are two priests in the cavern beyond as Daniel Jackson described. One is unconscious, the other in…extreme pain. I do not believe they will be a threat.” There was the slightest hesitation there, and a sidelong look at Daniel that made the archaeologist redden anew.

“Any other priests we should know about, Daniel?”

“Uh…at least two more—they were relieved of guard duty a while back. A book, Jack?”

“It was in a derivative of Latin, Daniel Jackson.”

“A _derivative_?”

Jack clenched his jaw. “Okay, so stay on your guard for those other two. Carter, is he fit to travel?”

“I don’t think anything’s broken, sir. If we take it a little easier…”

Fine. We’re going home. We’ll send a team back to discuss trade with the Hamburgler, just tell ‘em to steer clear of the church.”

He expected an argument to that and was surprised not to get any. Of course, Daniel probably hadn’t heard him, continuing to stare at Jack with that dazed expression as if he were still trying to get over the idea of Jack reading something.

“Teal’c, take point,” Jack nodded. “Let’s go, campers.”

He and Carter eased Daniel up to his feet, which seemed steady enough now. He was still favoring his side, and Doc Frasier would be taking a good look at her favorite patient when they got back, but his face had color again and Jack didn’t think he’d be falling on it soon. Still, he stuck close to the man’s side, one hand lightly on Daniel’s arm, ready to grab just in case.

They started on a path to the northwest, around the village instead of through it. Shorter though it may be, Jack didn’t trust the people anymore. The Sandwich was expecting them back and had seemed sincere, and that was worth following up on, but Jack wouldn’t be the one doing it. Yet another thing Daniel didn’t understand about him; Jack didn’t give those who’d hurt his people a second chance. Except maybe that kid, Messenger. He’d have to tell Warren to keep an eye out for the kid, take him under his wing a little. Jack owed him that much.

A minute went by, just enough for him to think himself safe, when Daniel murmured, “Latin, Jack?”

Jack’s eyes narrowed at him. “Celibate priest, Daniel?”

He caught the nervous swallow out of the corner of his eye. Good.

A long pause.

“But they were extreme situations.”

“Not like either of us had a choice, right?” Jack gratefully picked up the ball.

“Right.”

“It’s not like anybody else has to know.”

Daniel didn’t miss a beat. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

“Deal.”

“And Teal’c and Sam?”

Jack chewed on that a moment. “Bribery. Strawberry ice cream and jello.”

“Ah.” Daniel gave him a side-long glance. “You know, I’m glad you’re on my side.”

Jack grinned.  

Another minute. “So…where’s the lecture?”

Jack didn’t have to ask. “Isn’t one. You did good, Daniel,” he said honestly. “It wasn’t your fault the priests decided you broke some religious taboo, and you got yourself out through a well-thought-out plan. Next time might be better if you did it without getting yourself banged up, but…you did fine.”

“Oh. Uh, thanks.”

Clearly not what Daniel had expected. Apparently Jack could still surprise him, and not just with his unexpected talents. Before Daniel was too impressed, however, Jack couldn’t resist adding with a glance at his watch, “I should even make it back in time for the game.”

Daniel, prodding gingerly at his bandage, flung his gaze back at Jack, disbelieving. Jack smiled beautifically, and his team archaeologist groaned. There, that was more like it.

But Jack really was proud of the man. And relieved. For all Daniel’s pacifist talk, it was always a relief to see he would defend himself if needed. Jack already knew he’d fight for his team, but somehow they were higher on Daniel’s priority list than he himself was. Not on Jack’s. He wanted—needed—to know Daniel could and would take care of himself. And _two_ priests? Teal’c hadn’t said how big or if they were armed, but respect had shone in his eyes, too, as he’d looked at Daniel, so they weren’t 98-pound weaklings. Good for Daniel.

Maybe it hadn’t hurt that he’d found out about Jack’s little research session, for that matter. If it brought home how important he was to the group, it was worth it. And it sounded like he’d gotten to see things a little bit from Jack’s perspective, just as Jack’s little foray into the deadly dullness of academia had let him walk a step or two in Daniel’s shoes. Privately, he’d already resolved to try to give Daniel a little more time next time the archaeologist was laboring over something, and had seen something akin to new comprehension for a moment in the younger man’s eyes, even new respect. Maybe Daniel would think a little less contemptuously of him the next time Jack had to make a similar choice. He hadn’t even complained about going straight home, which had surprised Jack as much as his lack of chewing-out had Daniel.

A lot of maybes and we’ll-sees, but Jack was a patient man. Something else that might have surprised Daniel.

The man—his friend—glanced up at Jack as they walked, a small, warm smile pulling at his mouth.

Then again…maybe it wouldn’t.

The End


End file.
